The Second Messiah - A Thriller

SOMETIMES MYSTERIES ARE NEVER SOLVED. SOMETIMES THERE ARE NO ANSWERS.

Dr. Laura Pavlov, an American forensic archaeologist, is about to unravel a mystery that promises to shed light on one of the 20th century’s greatest enigmas.

A member of an international team digging on the outskirts of the present-day Russian city of Ekaterinburg, where the Romanov royal family was executed in July 1918, Pavlov discovers a body perfectly preserved in the permafrost of a disused mine shaft.

The remains offer dramatic new clues to the disappearance of the Romanovs, and in particular their famous daughter, Princess Anastasia, whose murder has always been in question. Pavlov’s discovery sets her on an unlikely journey to Ireland, where a carefully hidden account of a years-old covert mission is about to change the accepted course of world history and hurl her back into the past—into a maelstrom of deceit, secrets, and lies.

At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

After narrowly surviving his last operation, Gabriel Allon, the wayward son of Israeli intelligence, has taken refuge behind the walls of the Vatican, where he is restoring one of Caravaggio's greatest masterpieces. But early one morning he is summoned to St. Peter's Basilica by Monsignor Luigi Donati, the all-powerful private secretary to His Holiness Pope Paul VII. The body of a beautiful woman lies broken beneath Michelangelo's magnificent dome. The Vatican police suspect suicide, though Gabriel believes otherwise. So, it seems, does Donati. But the monsignor is fearful that a public inquiry might inflict another scandal on the Church, and so he calls upon Gabriel to quietly pursue the truth-with one caveat.

"Rule number one at the Vatican," Donati said. "Don't ask too many questions."

Gabriel learns that the dead woman had uncovered a dangerous secret-a secret that threatens a global criminal enterprise that is looting timeless treasures of antiquity and selling them to the highest bidder. But there is more to this network than just greed. A mysterious operative is plotting an act of sabotage that will plunge the world into a conflict of apocalyptic proportions. . . .

An intoxicating blend of art, intrigue, and history, The Fallen Angel moves swiftly from the cloistered chambers of the Vatican to the glamorous ski slopes of St. Moritz to the graceful avenues of Berlin and Vienna-and, finally, to a shocking climax beneath the world's most sacred and contested parcel of land. Each setting in this extraordinary novel is rendered with the care of an Old Master, as are the spies, lovers, priests, and thieves who inhabit its pages. It is a story of faith and of the destructive power of secrets-and an all too timely reminder that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Tyler Locke is on board a Washington State ferry when he receives an anonymous call informing him that a bomb is set to detonate on deck in ten minutes—long before the boat reaches port. When a frantic Locke races to the location, he finds classics professor Stacey Benedict has received the very same tip; in order to disarm the bomb, the two must work together to solve an engineering puzzle, a puzzle written in ancient Greek. But the entire setup is merely a test created by a terrorist cell intent on using them to undertake an incredible mission: uncovering the legendary lost riches of King Midas.

The cell is using Tyler’s father as their bait, holding him hostage and giving Tyler just ten days to track down the gold. Armed only with an illuminated manuscript penned by ancient inventor Archimedes, Tyler and Stacey begin their quest to solve a mystery whose answer is hidden within the workings of a famous artifact: the real-life Antikythera Mechanism, a three-dimensional treasure map built by Archimedes in 300 B.C.